Identification of Dynamic Behaviour in a Modular Drivetrain

Modular drivetrains are often referred to in literature as a method to handle load variations and create easily adaptable machine designs. However, limited research has been carried out to evaluate the impact of a modular design on the behaviour of the drivetrain. The impact on topics like controllability and vibrations is still underexposed. This paper presents a methodology to model a reference modular drivetrain consisting of several identical motor modules in cascade on the same shaft. The dynamical behaviour of the model is validated by fitting the mechanical parameters based on system identification measurements. The resulting model properly represents the modular drivetrain and can be further used to evaluate the impact of a modular design on the machine performance and explore the potential of modular and distributed actuation.